It was not only a night to celebrate the very best of Great Britain’s entrepreneurs, it was a time to sing about it too, as the winners of the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards for Wales and the South West took place in Cardiff last night.
“Entrepreneurs are worth their weight in gold,” - that’s a lot of gold, this may or may not be literally true, but they are worth an awful lot to UK plc, and should be awarded gold medals for their endeavour, but last night, at The NatWest Great British Entrepreneurs Awards for Cardiff and the South West, not only were the entrepreneur heroes of the region celebrated, a choir sung of their merits too.
To the melody of Carmen’s Toreador Song, a choir of entrepreneurs, directed by famous opera singer Mark Llewelyn Evans bellowed out the story of UK entrepreneurs.
The Pycroft sistersThere were 12 awards in total, including the grand award: The Great British Entrepreneur of the Year: Wales & The South West, which was scooped by the Pycroft sisters, Hannah and Sophie, the founders of Spectrum Collections. They are the creators of the world's most ‘Instagrammable’ makeup brushes.
They also won Family Business Entrepreneur of the year too and Tweeted “still in shock at winning.”
And the choir sung “entrepreneurs are worth their weight in gold, we seldom do what we’re told,” well truer words are rarely sung.
But entrepreneurs improvise too, some call it pivoting, others call it survival. The choir put it this way: “but if we’re stuck, we sell plastic ducks.” Bizet may not have chosen those words, but when he composed Carmen, there was no fourth industrial revolution afoot and there was no imperative to shout and indeed sing out the merits of entrepreneurs and why they matter.
Other winners of the evening were:
GoDo Entrepreneur of the Year Denise O’Leary, Purpol Marketing Limited
Creative Industries Entrepreneur of the Year, Matt Jones, S3 Advertising
Entrepreneur’s Champion of the Year, Rony Seamons, Entrepreneurial Spark
High Street Entrepreneur of the Year, Bradley Cummings, Tiny Rebel Brewing Co
Innovation Entrepreneur of the Year, Chris Ganje, AMPLYFI
Entrepreneur for Good, Wayne Cockram, Impact Mentoring
Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year, Steve Jones, Comparison Creator
Start-Up Entrepreneur of the Year, Scott Morgan, Nutrivend
Scale-Up Entrepreneur of the Year, Helena Hills & Simon Hills, TrueStart Coffee
Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Maciek Kacprzyk & Karina Sudenyte, Wonky Drinks
If you are an entrepreneur, or entrepreneurially minded, find out about The NatWestGreat British Entrepreneur Awards visit this page.
